16th..."Bizarre"

(Sorry about the hiatus, folks. Will try to keep on top of things from here out, but everyone needs a vacation now and then)

Roxy Music. Four stars.

Fairport Convention. The Beatles. David Bowie. Bob Dylan. On the whole, debut records bear the marks of influences and the musicians' own uncertainties. Roxy Music is one of the exceptions. In 1972, they put this record out, already sounding like veterans. Supremely confidant, with a unique sound, watertight band and fabulous front man, Roxy Music already seemed to know the exact sound (slightly camp art-rock with a strange lack of choruses) and look (glam rock) they were going for.

Make no mistake, this is classic Roxy down to the cover art.

The only clue that this is their earliest effort comes from Bryan Ferry: lyricist, pianist and singer. Compared to the work to come out in just a year or so, his voice herein is pale and washed out. And don't just take my word for it; Ferry himself must have harbored some dis-satisfactions, as he reworked almost half of these songs on his 1976 solo record Let's Stick Together.

The other members of the band: Paul Thompson on obligatory drums, Graham Simpson for bass, Phil Manzanera on the electric guitar, Andrew MacKay playing oboe and saxophone and a man the reproduced liner notes refer to only as "Eno" playing synths and tapes.

The album starts and ends quite fittingly, with party sound affects. Then Re-Make Re-Model kicks off. It's the straightest rocker in the set, and the saxophone is even better than the guitar. Highlight is the "band introduction" where everybody gets their own 10 second solo. It comes across as a well-rehearsed jam (which it may well have started as).

Ladytron is quieter, with a haunting soundscape crafted from oboe and synth and an elegant, darker lyric. It finally implodes as a dense rocker, but Manzanera does not get a solo.

The campier elements of Roxy Music come to the foreground on If There is Something, a woozy forerunner to the more American sounds of songs like Prairie Rose. However, it won't be pigeon-holed and shifts into epic, heartfelt territory with Ferry belting out his cliched declaration of love ("I would climb mountains..." etc... though he'd also become a gardener, growing roses...and potatoes?!).

Virginia Plain, the single, made the Top Ten in the U.K. and was performed on Top of the Pops. It's purely ridiculous, full of weird little asides and what might be the most abrupt ending of any pop song ever recorded.

2 H.B. is a sophisticated ballad whose title is actually "To Humphrey Bogart," explaining the almost-chorus of "here's looking at you kid." It focuses on Casablanca, but makes a touching ode to his entire screen legacy.

The Bob (Medley) is naturally the most schizophrenic song, starting off with pure Eno invention before abrasive rock...war sound affects, smooth jazz and Eno glitter (best part)...and so on until it eventually pivots back to the starting point. Art-rock with a capital A.

Chance Meeting is a stripped down piano driven work. Ferry's speciality is lost love between glamorous, beautiful people, and it's on display here. Less is going on musically, but incredible, ominous noises come from Manzanera's guitar...

Would You Believe? Snazzy melody, percussion and sax and more campy takes on what strikes as California rock. This is the last swinging song on Roxy Music and it's a great tune.

Sea Breezes (yes, surf sounds are lovingly included) is evocative, haunting and well-structured at first. MacKay's oboe is fabulous for three minutes, then the song goes into a herky jerky faster tempo with lots of noodling from all involved. It loses coherency at this point and is the weakest track.

Bitters End is, as the backing vocals so aptly sing "bizarre, bizarre, bizarre, bizarre." Every thing's here: the pink gin, the parties and yet also the loneliness and nostalgia for bygone romances. And it is cloaked in eccentricity from the delivery of the lyrics ("too late to leap the chocolate gate"...?) to the nominal music backing it up.

The debut of album of Roxy Music doesn't really put a foot wrong. In hindsight, better things were to come, and I'd recommend a newcomer start with Country Life, but this is a good little CD for fans of unpretentious art-rock or who just want something different.